


Strangers in the Night

by Ph03nixs_FicStop



Series: Make this Place Your Home [1]
Category: Persona 4, Persona 5
Genre: Child Abandonment, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, Mentioned Akechi Goro's Mother, Post-Persona 4: Golden, Pre-Canon, somewhat canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25874518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ph03nixs_FicStop/pseuds/Ph03nixs_FicStop
Summary: It wasn't too long after leaving Inaba that Yu fell into a new routine in Tokyo. He had just finished the school day and on is way home when he has a chance encounter with an abandoned looking boy. A look into the boy's lonely eyes and he knew he had to help. By extending an offer of kindness to an unloved boy, he offers them a new chance at life after a traumatic beginning.-Part 1 of a series of oneshots & chaptered fics for an AU where Yu Narukami meets an runaway, orphaned Akechi Goro one night as he's back in Tokyo from Inaba, and decides to take him in for the night.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Narukami Yu
Series: Make this Place Your Home [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877584
Comments: 10
Kudos: 114
Collections: Quality Persona Fics





	Strangers in the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Restarting the Butterfly](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22816939) by [Dreaming_darkness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreaming_darkness/pseuds/Dreaming_darkness). 



> Currently unbeta'd.  
>  **-In need of beta readers-**

It had been a few weeks since Yu Narukami had left Inaba to return to Tokyo, but to say that he was situated back to life in the city would be a stretch. He missed his friends, the quiet town life, and their adventures in the TV World. Then again, it wasn't like they didn't keep in touch, they pretty much called every week, always curious about how he was doing back home, and he'd relay everything to them and vice versa.

Today, he had been walking back from Shujin Academy, his new school since the spring break ended in early April. It hadn't been particularly eventful that day, but his college prep the night before affected him this morning, getting him a piece of chalk to the face by Mr. Ushimaru. At least he had been awake enough for Kendo Club this afternoon, but they let out late today and he had stayed back to help clean, making him even later.

" _I bet Yosuke's going to get a laugh out of that one when we call this week._ " Yu thought to himself as he idly walked on the busy streets of Tokyo again. He stopped as he felt a few drops hit against his face and sighed, moving to pull out his umbrella from his school bag. Clouds had built up throughout the day, and considering that it was getting late in the day, he wasn't surprised it finally decided to rain. It started gentle, but it wasn't too long before it came down hard and he found himself trying to reach the Aoyama-Itchome Station before he got drenched.

He spotted the entrance of the subway in the distance, slowing his pace so he wouldn't trip before he got close to the stairway. However, he stopped in his tracks when he noticed a child sitting under the rafters of an alleyway from the corner of his eye, soaked and shaking.

“ _I should leave him be..._ ” was along the line of his initial thoughts, that was until he took a closer look at the child. Upon closer examination, he could see the child balling up their fists, one moving to rub against their eyes, likely crying but it was hard to see through the heavy rain. For one moment, his and the child's eyes met, gray meeting ruby. That solidified his decision.

“ _I can't just leave them like that. They're already getting ignored by all other passersby..._ ” Yu thought to himself as he began to walk over to the child's direction. They looked surprised that someone was willingly approaching them until they heard something their own way, changing surprise to fright.

He had made it over to the streetlight right near where the child was initially until he saw the child run to him and grab at his uniform pants, hiding behind them. He got an opportunity to see that the child hiding behind him was a young boy with drenched brown hair, and moved to keep the umbrella over both their heads. It was at that moment he also noticed a pair of officers were patrolling up the street, likely the reason the boy ran over to him. They briefly looked at Yu, then the child, and decided to approach the two.

“Excuse me young man, but is this child _yours_?” One of them asked, as the second was looking Yu over, noticing the Shujin Academy uniform.

“Yes sir, this is my little brother.” Yu answered in a matter of fact manner as he stood his ground firmly against them, not moving away from them as that would tip off that something was up.

“Awfully late for a student like yourself to be wandering around this area in such conditions.” The second officer stated, giving Yu a stare that showcased doubt in his statements.

If Yu didn't have the courage to keep lying to the officers and low expression to sell his lies a normal conversation, he would have cracked in his facade. Luckily, his time in Inaba had improved him in all aspects of his life, including his social abilities. Without hesitation, Yu passed off a quiet laugh before answering the officer, pretending to be embarrassed. “Maybe so, but I was helping with clean up for my club after school. I had asked my brother here to wait for me at his elementary school, but I'm guessing that with the rain, they weren't willing to let him wait there. A friend called me to let me know he came around here for some cover from the rain.” He finished as his phone pinged a notification sound.

It was probably a late weather alert or an incoming text. No matter the case, it came at the perfect time as Yu looked down to grab his cellphone, check it over quickly, then put it back. “Thank you for your time officers, but that was from our parents. We need to get home before the train leaves.” He stated firmly as he bows to them, as if to thank them as they did nothing but question him, then begins to turn around. He gives a final wave as he walks into the crosswalk, safe to pass as a the timer for walkway started as Yu had finished bowing.. “Sorry for troubling you officers, but you two have a good night.”

Yu and the boy were already across and walking towards the station as the two officers were left behind, not able to do much as he had stolen control of the conversation and left behind a convincing alibi. He did feel bad for a moment, but then looking down at the boy, still holding onto his pants leg, the guilt dissipated quickly. As they entered the underground station, Yu pulled the umbrella down, shook it a bit to get some of the rain off, then tied it together and held it on his free side where the boy wasn't holding onto him. He dug into his pocket and looked at the time, sighing. He didn't have time to cook much, but he might be able to whip something up for his guest. The two were walking towards the terminal before the boy suddenly pulled away, obviously anxious and embarrassed.

“Thank you for all your help, mister. I-I'm gonna go now...I don't want to trouble you anymore!” he mumbles as Yu turns back to him, noticing his leg is free. The boy attempts to run away before Yu grabs one hand gently and gives a firm shake of his head.

“You're soaking. You'll get sick if you're out on the street like that.” Yu points out as the boy pouts, wanting to walk away.

“Doesn't matter! I-I'm going h-ho..me...” He tries before the Yu's eyes narrow at that statement.

“If you were going home, you wouldn't have run to hide behind a stranger from some police officers. In fact, they could have taken you home instead without a problem. You ran away, didn't you.” He points out, getting a confirmation as the boy's posture stiffens and he looks away with guilt. “Thought so.”

As he closes his eyes and sighs. He had a conundrum. There was a problem he had now inadvertently found himself involved in as there were officers outside and if they saw the boy back alone, they'd take him back to wherever he ran away from, and he'd get charges placed on him for lying to an officer. They had even took notice of his uniform and could easily spot him in a crowd due to his appearance. Then there was the issue of letting a runaway, possibly homeless, child go free, and that would way heavy on his conscious.

Yu has the option of letting the boy stay with him, and its not like his parents would notice as they're barely in the house besides the early morning and late night. He'd be leaving his home to an absolute stranger, but they were just a kid. There weren't many choices he could make, so he decided that helping the child for a night wouldn't be bad, and he'd leave them with an offer of a place to stay if they chose to after tonight.

With his mind made up, Yu bends down to the boy's eye-level, down on one knee, and moves the hand off of him to instead hold it out to him. “How about this, we make a deal. You come to my house to clean yourself off, get something to eat, and have a place to sleep for the night. That way you don't get caught and taken by officers and I don't get end up in trouble for lying.” He offers, watching the boy.

Yu notices it. He hesitates, reaching out for the hand before pulling it back and his hands wrapping around himself, likely an attempt to comfort himself. His ruby eyes dart from place to place as hints of fear and guilt fill them. It takes a bit before he relents and grabs the hand with a tight hold, closing his eyes as if to hide from his decision.

Yu offers a warm smile as he stands up and keeps hold of the trembling, small hand, briefly reminded of his little sister Nanako, as he focuses back on the present and moves to lead them to the terminal. “It's a deal then. My name's Narukami Yu, and my stop is at Shibuya, so it shouldn't be a long ride. Let's get going then, shall we?” He starts as he leads, looking back down at him with a sympathetic expression, trying to convey a silent “ _I won't hurt you_ ” before facing forward again to the train terminals. The boy barely acknowledges it, but Yu can feel the grip he has on his hand, filled with nerves but relief.

The train ride to the Narukami Residence is quiet at first, but Yu tries to open up to the boy by showing him pictures of cute cats he's found around the city. It helps ease some tensions, but the child does tease the high schooler about his fascination with cats. Yu tries to make an excuse for it, but the boy just replies with a roll of his eyes and laughter. It was the first genuine smile Yu had seen since running into the runaway, and he preferred that more than the tearful expression he saw him with initially, so he'd take being the butt of the joke this time. When they heard the stop for Shibuya, Yu motioned for the boy to step off of his seat and follow him, feeling bad for whoever may end up sitting on the soaked train seat.

-

It wasn't long before the duo were in front of an unlit house with no cars in the driveway. The boy looks up and sees the high schooler sigh and mutter something under his breath before grabbing his keys and opening the front door. Once open, the older holds open the door for him to enter as he steps in, the lights coming on after him. He tries to hide his relief that he's back under a warm roof as the older boy closes the door behind him then walks up the staircase.

“Come over here, I'll run a bath for you to clean up with as I go make some dinner. Sound fair?” He states as the boy gasps and runs up.

“C-Coming!”

True to his word, the older boy leaves him a bathtub filled with warm water, leaving him fascinated by it. He briefly wonders how long it's been since he's had a warm shower outside of the bathhouse his mother would send him to whenever she brought someone home. He's dragged out of his thoughts as the gray-haired one brings over one last thing.

“I found some bubble bath mix in the cabinets. I think it might have been my little cousin's since she helped me pack when I was coming back to Tokyo.” He starts as he hands it to him, dropping it in his small hands, before moving to the bathroom door. “I'll go look through some of my old clothes, and leave you something to wear outside the door. Towels are to the right, and I'll be downstairs whenever you're done. Enjoy.”

It takes a few moments for it to sink in that he's in a house, and that a stranger willingly took him in and offered him food, a shower, clean clothes and a place to sleep for tonight. In the privacy of the bathroom, Goro Nakano relishes in the peace, tears falling from his eyes as he begins to slip out of his drenched clothes and into the tub. He doesn't care that he's crying, what matters at that point is the fact that this reminds him of being home, with his mom, and that he hasn't felt like this for at least five years now. “...five lonely years now, huh..?” He asks himself quietly before shaking his head, trying not to dwell on that thought too much, as he closes his eyes and sinks into the pleasantly warm and bubbly water.

-

After digging through his old clothes, Yu managed to pull out a set of old uniforms from when he had attended various middle schools due to constant moving. He took the gym uniform bottoms from one and added an old t-shirt with it for makeshift pajamas, and prepared the standard button up and slacks from another to lend the boy for tomorrow morning. By the time he finished with the younger one's arrangements for the night, there wasn't much time left for him to cook if he wanted to study or read something tonight. He decided to prepare an omurice as he pulled out some ingredients for it, remembering how it had been a favorite dish of Nanako's. He wasn't sure if he'd like it the way he made it for her though, so he went with the a ketchup topping.

As he started on dinner for himself and his guest, he thought about his parents. It was early for the night, around 8 pm if he was right, so he should have expected they'd still be out, but it still just annoyed him. What had been the point of moving him back from Inaba if he had been more comfortable there, than he ever felt here. On the bright side, the house wasn't so empty for once with his guest. It's not like his parents would even notice, they were never even around. Yu smiled as he enjoyed the sounds of a lived in house, happy he wasn't alone for once.

By the time he had been setting up the table, the boy finally came down, dressed in the clothes Yu had left for him. His hair was much brighter and tame now that all the gunk and dirt was off, but the boy still did look pale. He gave the child a small smile as he set down the plates of food onto the table and gestured towards it. “Welcome back. I hope you like omurice.” he offered as the other stood there in awe, surprised at the warm food awaiting him. Seems he was still skeptical about his kindness...

Awkwardly, the child began to stiffly walk over to the table. He pulled out his chair, took a seat and waited there, leaving Yu confused. He took his own seat and started to eat the warm meal before glancing over at the child, still not touching his food. “ _What's he waiting for?_ ” he thought for a moment as he stopped eating to look at him. “It's okay to start eating. You don't have to wait for me, or is there something wrong with the food?” Yu asks as the boy finally stops the waiting act and reaches for his own food.

“....--ank you for the meal..” Is all he hears from the one in front of him, a whisper of gratitude. The odd display of behavior set off alarms internally, but Yu would keep it to himself for the moment. He didn't want to pry.

Not to far along into the meal, Yu notices the atmosphere becoming more and more tense by the second, and decides to try and check up on his guest with small questions.

“How was the bath? It wasn't too hot was it?”

The boy mumbles out a quiet “..was good..” and a shake of his head as responses. Not much, but he got something out of him at least.

“Are the clothes comfortable for you? Not too tight or anything? If they are, I can lend you something else.”

Once again, not much of a response besides the shaking of his head and inaudible “..no..”'s for responses. Yu was about to try and ask something else before a quiet and shaky voice asks him something this time.

“w..Why...? Why are you being nice to me? I'm not worth the effort..”

Hearing this made his heart drop. Yu had expected some energy in the child with getting to stay somewhere for the night, not this heartbreaking questioning at his intentions. He takes a quick breath in and out before responding. “I'm doing it because I want to. You're just a kid.” He states with a hint of sympathy. This does not go over with the boy well as his left hand moves off the fork and onto rubbing his eyes, attempting to hide tears.

“But why?! You're just wasting your time!” The boy cries out, becoming more agitated as he begins to let loose his caged words.

Tears begin to flow from the boy's ruby eyes, hands thrown up in the air out of anger towards his helpless state. “I'm useless! You're doing nothing but wasting your time on someone who doesn't deserve your help! The world would be better off without **me**! _I SHOULD JUST DISAPP_ \--!!”

Yu doesn't let him finish that statement as he moves out of his seat over to the upset boy. He bends down to his level on the chair and pulls him into a tight embrace to silence him. The boy kicks and screams into him when grabbed, but Yu keeps his grip tight on the boy until he yields, hearing only sobs and short breaths in between them. He begins to loosen his hold afterwards, looking down at him with a hurt and sympathetic expression, a hand moving to gently pet the boy's hair, trying to help ease his tears.

Eventually, the boy leans in to the touch as his hands ball up the end of Yu's shirt, showing that he wanted to be held, but couldn't do it for some internal reason. He didn't question it, but he just did his best to soothe him with the little experience he had with children like he had in the daycare and with Nanako, even if the boy looked older than those two groups. As he combs through the boy's shaggy hair, he decides to speak up again but in a soft manner to not upset the boy further.

“It's hard, isn't it? Feeling like you're all alone in the world...but it doesn't have to be that way, not forever..” Yu starts in an empathetic manner, eliciting a nodding response from the crying child holding onto him, teary ruby meeting a warm gray.

“You haven't been shown kindness for a long time, haven't you? I don't want to give up on you because you remind me of a past I grew from, alone and left behind. I don't know where you're coming from, but just know that I'll be here for you, that someone in this world does think you matter and deserve a chance to live just like everyone else...” Yu finishes as the boy takes in the words and weeps at their meaning.

-

Someone wanted him. After all this time, someone wanted to care about him. Goro knew he was being selfish, but he wanted to indulge in the attention and care this person was offering to him. He may have felt he didn't deserve it, but this stranger was delusional enough to want to offer such kindness to someone as worthless as him, so he'd take it gladly.

-

Neither of them were really in the mood to eat after that emotional moment, so Yu took care of storing the leftovers in the fridge after urging the boy to go wash himself up after all that crying. He stretched some after the food was put away and he had finished washing the dishes, thinking on what he could do to help someone so hurt and forgotten. He thought he'd done all he could for today, but there were no guarantees that he'd see the boy again after tonight.  
Sighing, he moved to start heading up to his bedroom, grabbing his own sleepwear, and changing briefly after checking that the boy was still in the bathroom. Yu ran a hand through his hair, still stuck on what the broken boy had cried out, wondering what could have traumatized someone so much. He doesn't have much time to ponder an answer as said child is waiting over at the open doorway into his room. He pushes those thoughts to the side as he gives the other a small smile and gets off the corner of the bed he had been sitting on. “All done?”

He only gets a nod back before he speaks again. “You can take the bed, alright? We have a spare futon mattress that we use on guests, so don't worry about me.” He assures before he hears something back.

“..hank you..”

Yu chuckles at the quiet reply and gives the boy a pet to the top of his head.

“You're welcome, goodnight.”

He's starting to leave to go grab the futon and prepare for bed himself as he feels a hand reach out and grab at his pants leg.

“w..w-wait!”

His attention is back on the boy grabbing on, looking down at the ground as his free hand messing with the end of his borrowed shirt.

“Goro...My name's Nakano Goro. G-Goodnight to you too Narukami-san..” the boy, no, Goro stuttered out, leaving Yu with a soft smile.

“Goodnight then, Goro-kun..” He hums back as a reply, ruffling the other's hair briefly as the boy letting go of his pants leg and walks over to the bed and begins to lie in it, attempting to sleep. Knowing that Goro trusted him enough to tell him his name left Yu with a sense of alleviation and sincerity as he walked off into the hallway to prepare for bed, content with the idea that the house wasn't so empty tonight as it was every other day.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! Bet you didn't expect an entirely new AU, DID YOU? HAHA! Jk, I've been too excited and hinted at it a lot in the end notes of recent chapter of _"Early Reawakening"_. Now it's finally here, the start of a new AU verse series! ~~Do you see my Yu Narukami bias here? HE'S JUST SO--AAH!!!! QwQ I love my P4 boi, I just love Persona..~~
> 
> So, down to it, we have a very concerned, big-brother mode Yu Narukami and a very emotionally distressed orphan Akechi Goro. What will they do? Who knows, ~~oooh I know and boi do I have plans.~~ This series is meant to have more one shots than anything, and they'll be a bit more conclusive endings to each compared to chapters of my other fanfic series. There's fluff in the future, and a b u n c h more! This is also going to delve into Post-P4 Golden (but not the final ending epilogue yet!) to Pre-P5 then to P5:R time, based off my own ideas/headcanons/etc.
> 
> By the way, ages as of this time for each are: Yu is 17 and Goro is 13!  
> Why? This oneshot is set in April, start of the new school semester, and both these bois (or at least Akechi) have June birthdays, so the math should work...hopefully. I tried to change the formatting a bit, so tell me if that's easier to read, or if I need to tweak it more! Also, how did I do with characterization for this one? Let me know what you guys think with reviews and kudos!
> 
> ~Til next time everyone, Phoe out~


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